May Madness 2006

May is finally here, which, among other things, means that I need to start relying on caffeine to get up in the mornings...at least through the end of the school year. Seriously, though. Over the last four weeks, I have not adjusted well to Daylight Saving Time. This might be partly because of my schedule; dinner isn't usually until 19:30 or 20:00, and the sun doesn't set until later. I go through the entire day thinking it's earlier than it actually is...including thinking that waking up at 06:30 is earlier than it actually is.

On top of that, my neck has really been giving me problems lately, and I was prescribed some medicine to help with it in the short-term. The bad news is it can make people drowsy. That definitely includes me. I took it Sunday morning right before church. By the time the sermon rolled around, I noticed I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. So I closed them. I really don't think I missed much of it, but I know I zoned out for about 30 seconds at a time. Oh, well. God will forgive me.

I ended up sleeping most of Sunday afternoon, as a combined result of the medicine and me just being tired. I took it again today, and actually got through a day of school. However, my neck felt the same. It's funny how the medicine worked really well yesterday, but hardly at all today. Maybe it's because I took it with Pepsi this morning. The stimulant in the caffeine might have countered the effects of the depressant in the medicine.

In that case, what will I do? I can't spend the next few weeks of school practically zonked out, especially with the mayhem that the Advanced Placement (AP) tests will bring. As if taking three AP tests in the next two weeks isn't going to be stressful enough, now I have to worry about staying awake for their entire duration. Yay...

Speaking of staying awake, the induction ceremony for the National Honor Society (NHS) was this afternoon. Although, when you're on the stage it's not so boring. But I bet there were a few closed eyes in the auditorium. Needless to say, I managed to stay awake, regardless of any drug-induced tiredness I was experiencing. And I didn't embarrass myself in front of the whole school this year. Nope; I made sure someone else got that responsibility this time around...

Now despite the fact that we need a school-wide assembly for a "ceremony" with candles and everything, NHS is not a cult, no matter what you think! Even some of our members were thinking the ceremony was a bit cultish, and, well, maybe it is. Anyways, we got to welcome all ten of the new inductees (not quite 100 like Bethel Park), and after the general student population was dismissed we went right into our regular meeting, getting the inductees in the swing of community service.

The major charity fundraising campaign for NHS this year is "May Madness 2006," which benefits the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania. It will follow the same format as last year's very successful campaign for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We raised $1347.87 for them in three weeks' time. We're doing an entire month for the food bank.

Interestingly enough, our speaker for the NHS induction was the executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank. Hmm...I'm starting to notice a pattern...

Anyways, on top of that, on 13 May I'll be participating with the 14th Annual National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive, which is the largest one-day food drive in the nation. Anything collected in our ZIP code is given directly to my church's food pantry, which ordinarily gets most of its food from (you guessed it) the Second Harvest Food Bank. Last year, we collected over 3300 pounds of food.

As an aside, I hope Jay and Craig start blogging again. They missed the entire month of April. Boo.

And no, I don't know if I'm going to prom or not this year. My entire family has been bugging me non-stop, especially this weekend, which really irked me because I couldn't see the person I asked until today, so what could I have done about it then? And then she was absent today, so now I've got to deal with another day of my mother literally panicking about the uncertainty of my plans for 19 May. I guess my grandparents are coming up that evening; they want to know if I'll be joining them for dinner. And I had to tell them I don't know. So, yeah, I've got to find out soon; the clock is ticking...

Speaking of clocks ticking, I've only got 38 days left as a high school student. But I've really got to finish that whole senior project thing. Actually, that's my major project for tonight. I'll blog again later; in the meantime, don't worry about me.